The coming weekend is going to be exciting as Mikel Arteta’s men prepare to take on their London rivals West Ham United.
The odds have been in the favour of the Gunners since the arrival of Arteta from Manchester City mid-season. This was obviously proven by the two trophies that the London club was able to win towards the end of their season.
Talking about recent fixtures, Arsenal are coming into the match with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Fulham whereas the Hammers received a 2-0 drubbing by Newcastle United.
Now let’s talk about the coaches. Fans have loved the arrival of their former captain Mikel Arteta as a coach for Arsenal as the club has potentially seen a considerable improvement in the last few months. On the other hand, West Ham barely made it out of the relegation zone under David Moyes. Interestingly, he was also the guy who came into this season with the odds of him being sacked at an all-time high. So a loss here and a couple of disappointing results to follow might just be the end of his tenure as the head coach of the London side.
Talking about stats, Arsenal have scored a total of 11 goals against the Hammers in their last five meetings with Arsenal winning four matches out of those. Add to that the fact that West Ham United’s results have not been good at the Emirates stadium in recent times and the odds of a Gunners victory increase manifold.
Although the Gunners finished well adrift of a Champions League spot last season, they have the advantage of having Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in their ranks who scored 22 goals last season in the league for them and won the golden boot the season before that. Another stat in Arsenal’s favour is that Alexander Lacazette enjoys playing against the Hammers having netted 4 goals in his last 3 appearances against the team and Arsenal could well be looking at increasing their lead at the top of the Premier League table.
This match cannot be termed as a mouth-watering contest but it would be interesting to see how many goals can the Arsenal attack score against a depleted West Ham side.
